VPRS 947 Inward Overseas Passenger Lists (see Microfiche Copies: VPRS 7666 United Kingdom Ports; VPRS 7667 Foreign Ports; VPRS 13439 New Zealand Ports)

Full description

This series holds the lists of vessels carrying unassisted passengers arriving in Victoria from overseas ports.

Laws relating to the carriage of passengers by sea (15 & 16 Vic., No. XLIV [1852] ss. XIII and XIV), set out the records which each ship's master was to keep of passengers on vessels leaving British Ports. It was required that "two lists.....correctly setting forth in the Manner therein directed the Name and other Particulars of the Ship, and of every Passenger on board.....when countersigned by the Emigration Officer, ..... shall be delivered by the Master to the Office of Customs from whom a clearance of such Ship shall be demanded...."

The Act to Regulate the Conveyance of Passengers to the Colony of Victoria 1852 (16 Vic., No. XVII) extended these provisions to ships arriving from foreign and intercolonial ports. These and subsequent Acts prescribed the form the passenger list had to take.

The lists recorded information about the ship, details of each passenger and a summary of the passengers carried. The amount of information given for each passenger varied over time. Marital status, age and sex were usually recorded; nationality and occupation were frequently included.

This series ended in 1923 when the responsibility of monitoring immigrant arrivals passed from the State to the Commonwealth. Lists submitted after this time are held by the National Archives of Australia.